Systems for color liquid toner electrostatic image reproduction are known in the art. These systems comprise apparatus for creating a latent electrostatic image on a surface through the formation of image and background areas, apparatus for developing the latent image including contacting the latent image with a liquid toner and a background cleanup apparatus that minimizes the undesirable deposition of toner on background surfaces. The development systems described in PCT patent application WO 90/14619 employ a reverse roller as a development surface with the reverse roller voltage intermediate the voltages on the image and background regions of the latent image bearing surface. For the systems described therein the background downstream of the development roller is virtually free of carrier liquid. Other systems which do not use rollers as a development surface, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,244, use a reverse roller charged to a voltage intermediate the voltage on image and background areas of the surface for removal of toner particles and excess liquid from the background and for the metering of the image.